Bleach: Tatsuki X Ichigo
Chapter 4
*Author's note: Greetings to my faithful readers who are enjoying their IchiTats reading. I hope you have all enjoyed the story thus far. I have very much enjoyed thinking about, reading about, and trying to write about this pairing. I hope that you all enjoyed the show and manga as much as I did as well. Most of all, I hope you all can provide me with some feedback in a couple of polls I have created but, for some reason, this site will only let me have one of them up at a time so I will try to consistently alternate between the polls I've created and allow you all to express your opinions of Bleach. Anyway, to continue, I've been very distracted lately between my military life and reading the final chapter of Bleach as well as trying to keep up with as many of my ten stories I have written on here (and brainstorming for future stories) as I can. I will try to consistently give you all the same quality product I expect of myself and I hope you all expect of me. Thank you so much for your devotion and please enjoy the following chapter.
The sun cast a soft morning glow into the homeroom of Tatsuki Arisawa as she sat in her seat thinking about the night before in her apartment. She remembered everything that had been said and she still shuddered at Orihime's words, '... he became a monster...'. Chills ran up and down her spine as she remembered the look on her face as she'd said that and she tried to forget it but the more she tried to forget it, the harder it became.
"Hey Tatsuki," came a soft feminine voice from behind her and she nearly jumped, turning to find Orihime standing behind her, wearing just as fake a smile as could be expected after the conversation they'd had.
"Oh. Hey, Hime," Tatsuki responded, forcing a smile as the beautiful redhead sat down next to her in the relatively empty classroom. It would be about another twenty minutes before the rest of the class was seated and roll was called.
The pair sat in awkward silence until class started.
As Tatsuki was about to get up and head to her second period class, she finally noticed Ichigo's seat was empty. She frowned and pulled her cell phone from her bag. As she walked through the hallway to her second period, she found Ichigo in her contacts and, reluctantly, pressed the call button. She brought the phone up to her ear and heard the tone for an unsuccessful call. Her frown deepened and she tried again, only this time, she was sent straight to voicemail, indicating his phone was either off or dead.
She quickly found Keigo and Mizuiro in her next class and, after class, she pulled them both out into the hallway and pinned them both to the wall with a handful of either of their shirts.
"Ok, where's Ichigo?" she asked, more than slight annoyance apparent in her voice.
"What are you talking about? Why do you think we'd know?" Mizuiro said, his face as blank as ever.
"Yeah. We don't get told anything," Keigo said, making a ridiculous face.
"Well when was the last time you guys spoke with him?" she asked, pushing them both harder into the wall.
"Yesterday in school," they both answered, making her finally release them. As she released them and they went on about their day, she turned to see Orihime staring at her, her hands clasped together against her chest.
"Where's Ichigo?" she asked, her eyes big and doe-like.
"I don't know," Tatsuki said, walking over to her friend and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Hime. I'm sure he's just at home sick today or something."
"Yeah..." she said, her eyes distant and sad as she looked away.
Tatsuki's smile faltered as she, too, gazed off in the distance.
'Where are you, Ichigo? We really need to talk, she thought as she lead Orihime to their next period.
As they entered the classroom, they encountered Uryu who had a particularly annoyed expression that he'd seem to be wearing since about a week before when some thugs from another school had come looking for Ichigo and he'd stood up to them along with Ichigo. She remembered hearing how Ichigo's boss had practically abducted him afterwards.
After class, she approached him as well.
"Hey, Ishida," she said, walking up to him as he stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at her, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"What is it?" he said, annoyed.
"Well that's just a rude way to speak to someone," she answered, stopping a few feet behind him and placing her hands on her hips.
"You never talk to me unless you need to ask about something," he said, matter-of-factly. "Let me guess. You want to ask me if I know anything about where Ichigo is."
"Well...?" she said. "Do you?"
"No," he said, turning back and walking into the hallway.
"Wait!" she said, following after him.
"Look, Arisawa, I don't know nor do I particularly care where Kurosaki is," Uryu said, stopping but not turning around. "He is himself and I am me. I don't care to know how he chooses to spend his time now that he's got no powers."
"So you only cared about him when he had powers?" she shouted, her fists balled at her sides.
"No, but that was the only time he and I had anything particular in common. Now that we have no real commonalities between us, I see no value in knowing what he does with his free time," Uryu responded, irritatingly calmly. "Now, good day, Arisawa."
With that, Tatsuki felt her expression fall into a deep, hatred-filled scowl and it took everything in her power not to rush him and strike out at him for his comments. She chose to turn and walk the other way and find somewhere she could cool down.
Uryu glanced over his shoulder to look at the long-black hair flowing behind her as she walked away. His gaze became distant and concerned as he continued walking on, soon casting his eyes back to the front and walking out of the school since he'd already completed the classes he had to be at for the day.
**************************BLEACH**************************
Uryu stood atop a roof just down the street from Ichigo's house, ensuring no one could see him and reducing his reiatsu to nearly undetectable levels. He cast a critical gaze on Kurosaki's residence, sensing some small traces of Ichigo's reiatsu stirring within the house.
'He should've lost all of his powers,' he thought to himself as he held his chin in contemplation. 'Yet I'm feeling his energy returning to the way it was before he encountered Rukia. At this rate, he'll be able to see ghosts again and interact with them within a couple of weeks; at most a couple of months.'
As he was about to depart from the roof, he felt the uneasy sensation of being watched and turned to see a man standing on a telephone pole nimbly. The man held a book with a delicate bookmark sticking out, its end gently flapping in the slight breeze.
He smiled softly as he closed his book and leapt from the pole and, within a couple of strides, was standing a mere ten feet from him on the very same roof.
Uryu opened his mouth to begin questioning the man, but, to his astonishment, the man suddenly disappeared. If he were more of an amateur, he'd have surely lost sight of the man as he performed a move similar to Uryu's hirenkyaku to move at astonishing speeds. Without a moment's pause, Uryu quickly took off after the man.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked, having no difficulty keeping up with the man. "And why are you watching me?"
"Who said I was watching you?" the man said, smiling back at him as he suddenly held a sword in his hand where the book used to be.
Uryu watched the man suddenly coming back at him and he tried to dodge.
'Shit! I should've known they'd be after Kurosaki! But why? Who are they?!' he thought as he tried, in vain, to dodge the blade that swung down onto him.
***************BLEACH******************
It had been five minutes since Orihime had sat down in his room and they'd been talking a little bit. She had just said she wanted to go home and he was about to walk her out, sliding on a pair of shoes and telling his sisters he'd be back soon, when there was a frantic knocking on his door.
"Ichigo!" he heard Tatsuki's voice from outside. Without a moment's pause, he sprinted to the door and opened it to see her standing there, covered in blood and holding a beaten and bloodied Uryu up with his arm over her shoulder and her arm around his waist. "Ichigo help!"
Without any further conversation, he had grabbed Uryu, somewhat roughly and heard the other teen groan. He quickly carried Uryu into the clinic and laid him out onto a sterile work table. Ichigo's mind switched into clinic mode and, as his father walked in, the pair began removing Uryu's upper half of his uniform. Ichigo grabbed peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and gauze, his calm demeanor keeping him from shaking in the least as he used compression bandages to absorb some of the blood. As he lifted the bandages away, he noticed the clear signs that these wounds were from a sword and his hands froze.
Noticing his son's change in demeanor, Isshin walked over to him and put his hand on his shoulder, pulling him away from the wounded teen.
"Ichigo, maybe it's best if you go and make sure Tatsuki's okay," he said, pulling his son away from the table as he began tending to Uryu. "And before you argue, just know I'm telling you to leave, not asking you to."
Ichigo, half prepared to protest, instantly retracted his hand and his objection when he saw the look in his father's eyes.
"Yeah," he said, his shoulders falling slightly as he turned and walked back out of the clinic and back into his house. He walked back into his house where he found Orihime checking on Tatsuki. As he walked into the kitchen, the two teens looked at him with wide eyes and he noticed all the blood on his shirt.
"is he ok?!" Orihime shouted, standing and running up to Ichigo as he noticed his shirt was soaked in many places with Uryu's blood. He looked back at Orihime's big soft eyes and averted his gaze.
"I don't know," Ichigo said, turning away from the girls as he explained. "The old man's working on him now..."
Without another word, Orihime ran into the clinic and left Ichigo standing alone in the kitchen with Tatsuki.
"Are you okay, Tatsuki?" Ichigo asked, glancing over at the girl over his shoulder.
"I'm fine," she said, despite looking a little shaken. "I just hope that Ishida will be ok..."
"Did you see what happened to him?" Ichigo asked, not noticing the quizzical gaze he got from Tatsuki as he put his hand in his pocket and felt the card he'd received the other day in his pocket.
"No, I didn't," she answered, staring at Ichigo. "Why?"
"Alright," he responded and walked out the door. "Do you want to borrow some clothes? I think I have some stuff that would fit you and, obviously, isn't covered in blood."
"Yeah," Tatsuki said, examining her clothes. "That's a good point. I'll probably go to Hime's house and grab a spare uniform or something so my mom doesn't notice I'm wearing a guy's clothes."
"Alright," he said, stepping towards the staircase when he felt a hand on his wrist.
"What are you planning to do Ichigo?" Tatsuki asked, holding him steadily in place.
"Nothing," he said, still not looking at her. "I couldn't do anything, even if I wanted to, remember?"
Tatsuki's eyes widened as he finally managed to get his arm free and she struggled to find the right words as he marched up the stairs to his room.
